Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,34
cowboy. The best touch was the brown boots: steel-toed. So when she had to kick someone, Smith could do maximum damage. The worst thing about Dee-Ann Smith, though, was her eyes. Because unlike most of their kind, her eyes didn’t change to a different color when she shifted. Imani’s brown eyes turned a bright gold when she became lion, but Smith’s eyes were an off-putting yellow all the time. It was like having a human pit bull staring at you.
Imani opened her mouth to tell the dog to roll over, but Malone quickly said, “No.” She looked back and forth between the two of them. “You know, ladies, we’re all on the same side. Working toward the same goal. Protecting our kind.”
“I have never been on the same side as the Group,” Imani reminded Malone. “My loyalty has always been to Katzenhaus. And if I still worked for Katzenhaus, I can promise you, we would not have an association with a bunch of hybrid freaks.”
“Can I shoot her now?” Smith pushed.
“No,” Malone snapped.
Fed up, Imani finally asked again, “Why are you here, Malone?”
“We need your help with something.”
It was the way she said it. The way her body suddenly seemed tense. This time, Imani knew the She-tiger was serious because she was trying so hard to hide it.
“With what?”
Malone cleared her throat, glanced away. But the dog, the dog had no such sense. “The de Medici Pride.”
Imani felt that tic she sometimes got right under her left eye. It was the only thing she couldn’t control with ruthless determination. She hated that tic, but other than using Botox, there was no way to stop it. And no lioness was so insecure as to waste time and money on getting shots in her face. What were they? Full-humans?
“Get off my property, Malone,” she ordered both dog and cat. “And I mean now.”
* * *
The cub’s father came stomping down his back steps, grizzly hump expanding with each move.
“Stop him!” Max ordered Dutch, pointing at the shifting grizzly.
“Why do I have to go after the bear?” Dutch wanted to know, but Max wasn’t really listening.
She ran to the tree that the cat had dragged his prey into.
“Goddammit! Drop that kid! Now!” Stretched out on a high branch, the cat had one paw pressed against the sobbing kid’s head and the other across his chest. Glaring down at her, Vargas gave a warning snarl.
“Let him go!”
Behind her, Max could hear rage-filled huffing. She turned and came face-to-face with a dozen of her neighbors in their bear forms. There were four grizzlies, two black bears, a polar, three sun bears, and—to Max’s great concern—a couple of sloth bears. Usually the most laid-back, easygoing bears there were . . . unless they were aggravated. They could be a little psychotic when aggravated.
And right now, all these bears knew was that there was a cat in their territory attempting to eat their children. Of course, all Zé Vargas knew was what any big jungle cat would know: that some chunky cub lying around in his kiddy pool with no parents around to protect him was easy prey. It didn’t help that Vargas was probably pretty hungry, too. Max hadn’t thought about feeding him when he’d been conscious. All he’d eaten were those cinnamon buns.
The worst part was knowing she’d never hear the end of this once Charlie found out.
Dutch pushed his way past all those shifted bears and stood in front of them.
“Let’s all just calm—” was all he managed to say before he was slapped into a yard three houses over by a livid grizzly bear attempting to protect his child.
Max raised her hands, palms up and out. “Okay. Everyone be calm. We can discuss this. Remember . . . I’m Max. Charlie and Stevie’s sister.”
Max grimaced as the roaring response from the grizzlies and black bears reminded her they had not been appreciating her nightly raids on their beehives.
Since trying the calming thing that Charlie was really good at wasn’t working for her, Max said, “Zé Vargas . . . if there’s a part of you in that tree that still knows you were once a U.S. Marine, you best realize the situation you’re currently in and let that goddamn kid go . . .”
The leaves in the big tree behind her rustled and—
“Ow,” she growled when the big-boned bear cub landed on her back. He was alive but crying. Something she didn’t have patience for.